Automate send levels?

Is there supposed to be a way to automate send levels? The fader in the send window seems stuck in 'Manual' mode, though there's a pop-up menu with 'Play', 'Write' and 'Touch' there, and I don't see any automation curve for the level.

Could I get an indication of progress with this. Is anyone working on it? Its a fairly vital feature in my field and would seriously help in transitioning from our current commercial DAW. Happy to help with code but not sure where to start with the automation features and not really sure how much has already been done. Looking at send.cc it would seem that some code is already in?

Is this functionality possible by routing the output of a send on one channel to the input of second channel which has a dedicated send, and then using the volume (or gain of another plugin farther up in the chain) on the second channel as an automatable send?

I'm completely new to ardour, and was having a couple of problems trying to do that, but it should be possible, no?

... extremely time consuming and very cumbersome when you need the automation on many tracks.

My undergraduate and postgraduate students use Ardour for audio composition and are crying out for send automation (typically to reverb). Generally these guys are working with huge amounts of precise (mouse entered) gain and pan automation. In fact the ideal for them would be that gain, pan and send automation be attached to regions directly (currently only gain envelopes possible on regions). The concept of 'tracks' doesn't actually work that well for this type of work.

All in all the ability to automate sends is extremely important for our work and I'm sure for many others.

Send automation is super-crucial here too. My students currently use Pro Tools but I've been pushing folks to try Ardour for awhile as it grows into an ever more stable and amazing DAW. It's hard to teach Ardour without automation for mutes, sends, and plugin bypass.

If send automation is planned for 3.0 I guess we shouldn't open a feature-request ticket for it, right? If it helps, I'll do it, but I'm wary of adding more noise to the development process.

Any indication of progress with this feature in 3.0 - I keep checking but am frequently disappointed. I really can't stress enough how much of a show stopper this is for me and others I work with. It's also a feature in virtually every competing DAW I ever worked with. The workaround is simply not viable for serious work.